Corbett: Persuading lawmakers a difficult job

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Tom Corbett said Monday that getting his fellow Republicans in the Legislature to agree on something is perhaps one of the most difficult jobs he's ever had to do.

Corbett made the comments as he heads into his third year as governor and confronts major issues that are pressing on Pennsylvanians, including boosting transportation funding and scaling back public pension costs.

The Republican governor suggested during an appearance on KDKA-AM radio in Pittsburgh that Republican harmony is no small task after conservative show host Marty Griffin told Corbett that the "knock on you" is that Corbett hasn't advanced key bills despite sharing power with a Republican-controlled Legislature.

"Just as there is a broad spectrum of Democrats from conservative Democrats to very liberal Democrats, so too does the Republican Party in the House and in the Senate here in Pennsylvania have moderate to liberal Republicans to conservative Republicans, and getting them all on the same page, working in the same direction is probably the most difficult job I've ever had to do," Corbett said.

Corbett also must make decisions for Pennsylvania under the national health care law that President Barack Obama championed, the Affordable Care Act.

Under the law, Corbett must decide soon whether to run an online health insurance exchange and whether to seek an expansion of income eligibility for the poorest Pennsylvanians under the federal-state medical care program called Medicaid.

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On Monday, he did not give an idea of which direction he would take, but he redoubled his criticism of the law, saying it will be costly for taxpayers and hurt the economy, business people and the middle class.

"This is the unaffordable health care act," Corbett said.

A spokesman for House Republicans said House and Senate GOP leaders did a tremendous job of reaching consensus and getting important legislation to the governor's desk.

"This past legislative session was hugely successful and one of the most accomplished in recent memory, so frankly I'm not certain where that comment would come from," said the spokesman, Steve Miskin.

The 2013-14 legislative session will begin in January, and Corbett will have fewer Republicans to win over: The Senate's Republican majority is shrinking to 27 to 23, down from 30 to 20 after three victories in races for open seats by Democrats.

In his first two years, a few of his top priorities were achieved with solid Democratic support, including a tax break for a proposed petrochemical refinery in western Pennsylvania that could become the state's biggest financial incentive ever.

However, most of his priorities that passed did so with little or no support from Democrats, including his first two budgets, refinancing the unemployment compensation debt, tightening rules around school property tax increases, updating state regulation of the booming natural gas drilling industry and requiring photo identification from voters.

A couple of key efforts backed by Corbett failed. Those included privatizing the state-controlled liquor store system and making it easier for privately run, publicly funded charter schools to open in Pennsylvania.